Jesus Eddie Campa - Chief Jesus "Eddie" Campa
MARSHALL — Crime in Marshall dipped in 2016 thanks in part to increasingly proactive community and predictive policing methods, according to data presented by Marshall Police Chief Jesus "Eddie" Campa.
MARSHALL — Crime in Marshall dipped in 2016 thanks in part to increasingly proactive community and predictive policing methods, according to data presented by Marshall Police Chief Jesus "Eddie" Campa.
"Overall crime has decreased," he said, adding that 2,417 crimes were committed in Marshall in 2016, down from 2,534 in 2015. "You will have some crimes that are higher and some that are lower. But when you average them out in total, crime is down 5 percent."
It was the third straight year of declines in the Harrison County seat. In 2015, total crimes were down 3 percent from 2014. And in 2014, it fell 20 percent from 2013.
The recently released data showed the largest declines have been in burglaries to buildings (down 42 percent), bicycle theft (down 29 percent), auto thefts (down 35 percent) and sexual assaults (down 39 percent).
Burglaries of habitations, however, increased 34 percent. And the homicide total was flat, with three murders each in 2016 and 2015.
Across the U.S., cities comparable in population to Marshall's 23,820 residents saw violent crime increase 1.1 percent, murders decline by 6.4 percent, robberies increase 1.4 percent, thefts decline 3.3 percent and arsons decline 6 percent in 2016. Those figures are from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report.
Comparatively, for 2016 Marshall saw aggravated assault increase 27 percent, robberies increase 75 percent for robbery, thefts under $100 increase 78 percent — and arson was up 133 percent.
Connection to poverty
Campa said most of the thefts were shoplifting and small crimes from stores like Wal-Mart, further exacerbated in December because of the holiday season — thefts under $100 went up 69 percent in December.
"You can point to economics," he said of the rise in both robbery and theft. "We have a high unemployment rate; we don't have a big job market. There's a lot of time we have an increasing drug issue around the nation (which results in theft). ... The more poverty there is in a community, the higher the robbery numbers are going to be."
Noting the rise in assaults, Campa said they can be difficult to prevent because many occur within the home.
"When it comes to assaults, it's hard (to prevent)," Campa said. "But you will notice sexual assaults are down; that's due to officers patrolling routinely dark areas where these sexual assaults will occur. … That's going to stay down because you can prevent that. Aggravated assaults are happening in residences where we're not around, so it is hard to prevent."
Campa said in some instances, residents can prevent crime themselves by reducing the opportunity for potential incidents.
"We need people to start locking their car doors and windows," Campa said, adding that auto burglary was up 33 percent in the month of December, though up only 3 percent for the year. "A lot of that crime will dissipate if people start (doing that)."
Campa said using computer statistics to generate maps of crime-heavy areas had allowed the department to better predict where crime will strike by knowing where it's been. His officers have been concentrating on areas that have had a history of crimes.
Computer statistics "played a big role in (stopping) the rash of drive-by shootings we had in Marshall (during November). We were able to pinpoint the next two targeted areas," he said. "When we figured out what those homes were, we had officers driving up and down that street all day and all night, which we feel led to the shootings not happening. Because of the extra pressure we put on, we were able to identify everybody and arrest three out of four shooters, with the last fleeing the area."
Growing relationships.
He also credited the strength of growing relationships between the department and the public.
"We've had to build a layer of trust with our residents," Campa said. "That is why we were out there doing 'Coffeewith the Chief' and the 'Cool Cops' ice cream truck. In the past, when I first got here, our hotline never rang. We never got tips, we never got information.
"But once we built that trust, started making a difference and people started seeing it — now the first thing we do when we notice a trend is to put out a video, put out a press release and let the community know we need their help," he said. "Right away, they start calling, which never happened, but now there is a layer of trust.
"We attribute our (decrease in crime) to the things we are doing in our community," Campa said. "Just the mere fact of the way we build up our relationship in our community, the old saying of 'snitches end up in ditches' is no longer in play here in Marshall. Once we put something out and ask for the community's help, they are blowing up our phones."
